Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Art of Costuming - Historic (Part I)Wearable Art

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

IntroductionClothes can be designed to be functional.

Fly fishing outfit.

Clothes can also be designed to appeal to your aesthetic.

Skirt - grunge 1990s.

Perhaps the least understood or for that matter, the most quirky concoction with respect to design and moreover, with no regard for acceptance, comfort, maintenance, durability and expense is the costume. It is an art form aimed to stretch the imagination beyond normal human bounds.

"To Believe in the Good Man." Gaiea (shown above) in her organic earthly splendour, confronts you the viewer as a representative of mankind (not shown), portrayed in a harsh synthetic garb.
Design, Construction & Model: Animal X.
Photography: Linda Sweeting.

The art of costuming falls naturally into three categories - historical, fantasy and futuristic. Historical costuming brings back historical designs but usually in the context of modern fabrics, colors and techniques of construction.

Role playing becomes part and parcel of the look, the style and the demeanour. You are noble not only because of the art of costuming, but because of your adopted mannerisms.

Fantasy may have out of context combinations. The constructs of an insect becomes the constructs of a costume. It is like Kafka’s Metamorphosis except you do not wake up and find you have become an insect, rather you dress and so you have embodied one.

Theatrical Costume.
Photograph: Paul Jeremias.

Futuristic is the most difficult to characterize since we are using today's technology for tomorrow's world. Here we must rely on where we want tomorrow to be rather than where we could be if tomorrow's technology was known to us now.

All images shown below comes from a book, The Costume Marker's Art, edited by Thom Boswell[1].

The Art of Costuming - Historic[1]Historic costumes have a hidden romantic component built within them. The designer/constructor loves the era of fashion that they have created. It is not just dressing-up for the sake of it rather it is dressing-up because of the empathetic love for it. During the day the designer/constructor may be wearing jeans or a mini skirt but when they wear their own historic costumes they are transformed and are driven back to an era, where their psychology would love to reside.

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2018 CrossXpollinatioN Exhibition - Journey's

Marie-Therese has been invited to be a 'Feature Artist' at the '2018 CrossXpollinatioN' exhibition which is themed 'Journey's'. Her ArtCloth Installation 'Timelines: An Environmental Journey' will be exhibited at the Colac Otway Performing Arts & Cultural Centre, Colac, Victoria from the 7th - 29th July 2018. The installation will feature works employing her signature MultiSperse Dye Sublimation (MSDS) technique on synthetic fibres.Click on the image to see how the Gondwana II was created.

Art Quill Studio @ Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair.

2018 Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, from the 20th – 24th June.Art Quill Studio can be found at stand no. G29_LP1 where my unique and contemporary hand dyed, hand painted and hand printed ArtCloth fabric lengths, fat quarters, fabric samplers and scarves will be available as well as my one-off/limited edition digitally designed ArtCloth fabric lengths.Click on the image to view some of my fabric lengths and the techniques used to make them.

I have uploaded a new Glossary on my blogspot.The Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms is highly focused, containing definitions and terms pertinent to the specific categories in the title. Click on the image to access it!

MEMORIESWoven Heritage Exhibition

Marie-Therese's ArtCloth print, 'Memories' is included in the Zayed University Permanent Collection Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Click on the image to read about Marie-Therese's artwork/technique which was previously exhibited at a solo exhibition at Sydney's Eden Garden Gallery.

About Me

I work full time as a studio artist, researcher, author, curator, speaker and tutor. I am also the Director of Art Quill Studio, The Education Division of Art Quill & Co. Pty. Ltd. at Arcadia Vale, NSW, Australia. I teach as a casual lecturer at The University of Newcastle (Australia) and I am the former co-editor of Textile Fibre Forum art magazine.

Employing my signature techniques I specialize in the area of ArtCloth, artist printmaker books and limited edition prints.

Followers

My Most Visited Posts"When Rainforests Ruled" - ArtCloth Exhibition

My Scarves @ The Australian Craft Awards

My unique, hand dyed and printed silk rayon velvet and pashmina scarves are available for purchase. To purchase a scarf please contact - studio@artquill.com.au.Click on the image above to see my velvet ArtCloth scarves.

Welcome to Art Quill Studio

Art Quill Studio is a trademark of Art Quill & Co P/L, which is an Australian Company with no subsidiaries outside of Australia.

This blog will be dedicated to arousing world wide interest in: (a) using the medium of cloth to create a work of art; (b) promoting works on paper; (c) exploring concepts that are the basis of my current artworks; (d) offering opinions on art issues; (e) providing art resources to the public at large.